Today I am going to JB for dental......

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An honorable member of the Coffee Shop Has Just Posted the Following:

My regular dentist is located near the Holiday Plaza. When I was young, my mom brought me to
polyclinic for dental treatment. Because the PAP govt frowns upon subsidised dental treatment, instead of growing
and improving the availabilty of such services they underinvested in it and force poor people to queue for months for dental treatment. The idea, I guess, is to force people to private dental care like the highly profitable Q&M chain of dental clinic that is listed on the stock exchange. You look at their pricing which is typical of private dental clinic and you can faint if you are poor ....

www.qandm.com.sg/FAQs.aspx

What left is thanks to proximity to JB, there is plenty of affordable dental services there. Why is this so?,The Malaysian govt, despite what we see as ineptness in many areas, does invest in public dental services , the dental treatment at a malaysian govt clinic has an average waiting time of no more than 20 mins and charges RM$1. That means private dentist cannot charge too high for treatment.
http://z3.invisionfree.com/Malaysia_Today/ar/t932.htm
Increasing number of singaporeans have to depend on Malaysia for their dental treatment as medical cost escalates in singapore and the singapore govt under invests in healthcare. It is ironic that we have to depend on a country that our govt view as an adversary to spend billions on defense taking away money that should be spent on healthcare for basic human needs ...an increasing number of elderly are put in old age homes in JB, pple like me have to get dental treatment there, I hear so many now even go to malaysian hospitals to give birth and for medical treatment....you really wonder what we should be fighting ....LKY's old ghosts or this govt that is taking so much from the people.
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http://www.straitstimes.com/premium/...tment-20130328

Story

18-month wait for polyclinic dental treatment

I VISITED a dentist at Jurong Polyclinic on Nov 2, 2011, and had a partially broken molar

I was shocked to be given a follow-up appointment for



80

scaling and polishing on May 7 this year - a gap of 11/2 years. I was told this was because there were too many



2

patients seeking appointments.

I resigned myself to the long



0

wait. However, the filling in my tooth came off recently.

Being in pain, I called the polyclinic to request that my dental appointment be brought forward, but was told there were no available slots.

The operator advised me to keep calling to check if anyone cancelled an appointment, so I could take that slot.

I was also told to check with the dentist if he would cap my broken tooth, as my next appointment was for scaling.

I was also dismayed to know that treatment was carried out by oral hygiene therapists, and not dentists.

We are advised to see the dentist every six months, so why are polyclinic appointments spaced so far apart?

This was not the case five years ago. Then, patients could have their teeth scaled, polished and filled all at the same appointment.

I hope the Health Ministry will raise the standard of public dental services, and also look into offering subsidised dental treatment at selected private clinics to ease the crunch at public clinics.

Sundram Muthiah


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